Guest guest Posted June 3, 2006 Report Share Posted June 3, 2006 Dear Devotees, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Perhaps you are meditating on how to optimize your spiritual development and your contribution to Srila Prabhupada’s movement, or perhaps you feel the need to revitalize your spiritual life. If you are in either of these situations, then please consider the opportunities to study Srila Prabhupada’s books in the association of advanced devotees in Sridhama Mayapur at the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education and Training (MIHET)*. A team of very senior devotees will facilitate the 2006 – 7 MIHET VTE Bhakti-sastri Course sharing their realizations in an interactive format designed to empower devotees as preachers, leaders, and lifetime servants of ISKCON. The course will begin on Bhisma Pancaka (November 2, 2006), enabling devotees, during the last five days of Kartika, to get credit for their austerities as if they had performed them for the entire caturmasya. For those that have already taken Bhakti-sastri, the MIHET will pilot (also on November 2) a unique approach to studying the Bhagavatam with its Canto 4 Bhaktivaibhava Module. Students will hear from fully trained VTE facilitators in the morning Structured Learning Classes and from senior ISKCON sannyasis and leaders in the evening Thematic Discussions. After the Canto 4 Module, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu will facilitate a 3-week course entitled Vedic Cosmology in the 5th Canto. He is leading a team of scholars studying this section of the Bhagavatam and he will share their realizations with his students. Due to the unprecedented stature of our teachers this year, the MIHET expects many devotees will enroll in these courses and thus encourages devotees to register online as soon as possible to secure their seats. These courses will end before the Mayapur Festival when the MIHET will offer the VTE Teacher Training Courses, the VTE Leadership Management Course 1, and the Temple Worship Courses providing opportunities for our sastric students to increase their devotional and life skills. For those wishing to stay on in Mayapur after Gaura Purnima, the MIHET will offer a Curriculum Development Workshop on Srimad-Bhagavatam Cantos 5 & 6 from March 12 to June 16, 2007. This workshop will be a combined MIHET / VIHE project with teachers from both institutions participating. It will be conducted as a course with the normal facilitator student interactions, but qualified students will also have the opportunities to participate in curriculum development projects for future Bhaktivaibhava courses. We have experimented with this combination in the past and our students have found this arrangement substantially enhances their learning. Studying in Mayapur, the dhama with the most sakti in this age of Kali (Navadvipa-dhama Mahatmya), will be even more potent during this workshop because the month of Purusottama takes place from May 16 to June 14, 2007. Here is a description from the Padma Purana of the potency of the month of Purusottama: "This month of Purusottama is even more glorious than all other months including the month of Kartika. The glories of all other months are not even equal to one sixteenth of the glories of month of Purusottama. The merit of a person who takes a holy bath even once in this month is equal to the merit of taking bath in Ganga for twelve thousand years . . . . Suta Goswami continued to speak to the sages of Naimisaranya, "O brahmanas, in this way, the great sage Narada Muni became very pleased by listening from Lord Narayana about the month of Purusottama . Narada paid his obeisances again and again to Lord Narayana and started to speak, "This month of Purusottama is the best of all months; it is best among all kinds of vratas and austerities. One who just listens to the glories of the month of Purusottama faithfully will achieve pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord Purusottama. All of his sinful reactions will be immediately nullified. One who performs the whole vrata and worships the month of Purusottama properly will achieve unlimited glories and attain Goloka." We hope to be able to serve you in Mayapur in the months ahead. Your servant, Janmastami dasa *With a desire to emphasize the Devotional and Life Skills Training Program within our ethos, we have implemented a name change from the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education (MIHE) to the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education & Training (MIHET). Systematic Sastric Study 2006 - 2009 "Everything is in my books." - Srila Prabhupada VTE Bhakti-sastri Course November 2, 2006 - February 6, 2007 Separate Sections for Men and Women Nectar of Instruction Bhakti Caru Swami Srimati devi dasi Bhagavad-gita Jayadvaita Swami Laxmimoni devi dasi Su-gita Vani devi dasi Nectar of Devotion Kadamba Kanana Swami Shyamala Sakhi devi dasi Sri Isopanisad Lokanath Swami Nanda devi dasi Pilot of the New Version of the MIHET VTE Bhaktivaibhava Course - 4th Canto November 2, 2006 - January 19, 2007 Thematic Discussions Facilitators Bhakti Caru Swami Hari Sauri dasa Jayadvaita Swami Kadamba Kanana Swami Laxmimoni devi dasi Srimati devi dasi Structured Learning Facilitators Atul Krishna dasa Tara dasa Vedic Cosmology in Canto 5 January 20 - February 4, 2007 Ravindra Svarupa dasa Our sannyasi teachers will lead parikramas throughout Navadvipa Dhama for our Bhakti-sastri and Bhaktivaibhava students on most Saturdays from November 2, 2006 to February 6, 2007. Please consult our website for details. Curriculum Development Workshop: Cantos 5 & 6 March 12 - June 16, 2007 Adi Purusa dasa Atul Krishna dasa BVV Narasimha Maharaja Madhavendra Puri dasa Narayani devi dasi Devotees may enter any of the above Srimad Bhagavatam Study modules without attending previous modules. 2006 - 2009 MIHET Systematic Sastric Study Schedule October 26, 2006 Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance November 2, 2006 Bhakti-sastri & Bhaktivaibhava, Canto 4 Courses Begin January 20 - Vedic Cosmology in the 5th Canto February 4, 2007 January 25, 2007 Advaita Acarya's Appearance Day January 31, 2007 Lord Nityananda's Appearance Day February 5 - 15, 2007 GBC Meetings February 7, 2007 Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's Appearance Day Feb 16, 2007 Mayapur Festival Begins March 3,2007 Gaura Purnima March 12 - June 16, 2007 Curriculum Development Workshop: Cantos 5 & 6 May 16 - June 14, 2007 Month of Purusottama, in which devotees derive more devotional benefits from austerities than during Kartika. July 16, 2007 Jagannath Puri Ratha-yatra November 14, 2007 Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance November 21, 2007 - Bhakti-sastri Course & February 23, 2008 New Bhaktivaibhava Course, Cantos 1 - 3* March 6, 2008 Mayapur Festival Begins March 21, 2008 Gaura Purnima March 31 - June 28, 2008 Curriculum Development Workshop: Cantos 7 - 9 July 1, 2008 MIHET Pilgrimage leaves Mayapur for the Puri Ratha-yatra July 4, 2008 Jagannath Puri Ratha-yatra November 2, 2008 Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance November 9, 2008 - Bhakti-sastri Course & February 11, 2009 New Bhaktivaibhava Course, Cantos 4 - 6* February 23, 2009 Mayapur Festival Begins March 11, 2009 Gaura Purnima March 23 - June 17, 2009 Curriculum Development Workshop: Canto 10, Part 1 June 20, 2009 MIHET Pilgrimage leaves Mayapur for the Puri Ratha-yatra June 24, 2009 Jagannath Puri Ratha-yatra *Prior to entering this module of the new Bhaktivaibhava Course, students will complete at home a 13-week Preliminary Self-study Unit using distance learning technologies on the MIHET website. Please visit http://www.mihet.info or write mihet (AT) pamho (DOT) net for details Appreciations: "Here in Mayapur, you have the Bhakti-sastri program. I've heard from so many devotees who have studied Bhakti-sastri here in the holy atmosphere of the dhama that their lives were transformed by three months of daily full time study of Srila Prabhupada books. They said it just turned their whole life around. Why? Your life will become transformed when one way or another you deeply accept the principles, these sacred principles of sastra, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam. You have to think about these things and allow your head and your heart to be challenged. That is how you experience spiritual growth. Srila Prabhupada was expert at doing that on his morning walks. He would challenge your conceptions, he would challenge your assumptions, and then he would insert the real knowledge that Lord Krishna gives." -Devamrta Swami, GBC Mayapur Bhagavatam Class, March 1, 2006 "It was without a doubt the most wonderful experience of my life. I'm sure that either systematically studying Srila Prabhupada's books or residing in Sridhama Mayapur for a few months fully engaged in service would have been transcendentally enlivening, but the combination was exponentially ecstatic. I very much appreciated Atul Krishna Prabhu's enthusiasm, expertise and mood, Jayadvaita Maharaja's patience and thoughtfulness with all our questions, and Hari Sauri Prabhu's dedication and expert intertwining of his experiences with Srila Prabhupada. Although I've practically grown up reading the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, I felt like I read it for the first time at the MIHET. Best of all was the association of the students. It seems like Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself screens who is allowed to come (how I snuck in I don't know), because everyone was so sincere in their desire to deepen their Krishna Consciousness and better equip themselves to spread the Lord's mercy. -Navin Jani is a Ph.D. student at University of California, Irvine, with a M.A. in city planning from University of Florida, where he wrote his thesis on the proposed city in Mayapur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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